110 Fun Facts About Exodus

Exodus is which book of the Bible?

Exodus is the second book of the Bible, following Genesis; it opens with Jacob's descendants multiplying in Egypt and a new pharaoh enslaving them.

In Exodus 4, what does Moses' staff become when he throws it on the ground?

At the burning bush God tells Moses to throw down his staff, and it becomes a snake (Exodus 4:3); he flees from it until told to grasp its tail.

What is the traditional Hebrew title of the Book of Exodus?

The Hebrew title is Shemot, 'Names', taken from the book's opening verse: 'These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt'.

According to Exodus, the enslaved Israelites were forced to build which two store cities?

Exodus 1:11 names Pithom and Rameses as the store cities the enslaved Israelites built; the name Rameses is one reason Ramesses II is often proposed as the story's unnamed pharaoh.

Who found the infant Moses hidden in an ark among the reeds of the Nile?

Pharaoh's daughter found the basket while bathing in the Nile (Exodus 2:5); she named the child Moses and unknowingly hired his own mother to nurse him.

Why did Moses first flee to the land of Midian?

He killed an Egyptian he saw beating a Hebrew and hid the body in the sand; when Pharaoh heard of it and sought his life, he fled to Midian.

What was the name of Moses' wife?

Zipporah met Moses at a well in Midian, where he defended her and her six sisters from shepherds who drove them off; their father then gave her to him as his wife.

Which priest of Midian, whose daughter Moses married, later advised him to appoint judges?

Jethro watched Moses judge every dispute alone from morning to evening and warned that he would wear himself out; the Druze revere Jethro as their chief prophet.

What was Moses doing when he encountered God in the burning bush?

Exodus 3:1 says Moses was tending his father-in-law's flock in the wilderness when he saw the bush burning yet not consumed and was told to remove his sandals on holy ground.

On which mountain does Exodus place the burning bush?

Horeb, 'the mountain of God' in Exodus 3:1, is usually identified with Sinai; centuries later Elijah fled there and met God not in an earthquake or fire but in the quiet sound that followed.

What name does God give when Moses asks who is sending him?

'I Am Who I Am' is the reply, and God at once shortens it into a name Moses can deliver, telling him to say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'

After Moses first asked for the Israelites' release, Pharaoh made them gather which brickmaking material themselves?

Straw had been supplied until then; Pharaoh cut it off but kept the daily brick quota unchanged, which is where the phrase 'bricks without straw' comes from.

What does Exodus say happened to Pharaoh's heart during the plagues?

It was hardened, and the phrasing shifts as the plagues go on: early on Pharaoh hardens his own heart, and not until the sixth plague, boils, does the narrative say the Lord hardened it.

What was the first plague on Egypt?

In the first plague the Nile turned to blood (Exodus 7:20): the fish died, the river stank, and Egypt's magicians matched the feat with their secret arts.

Which plague followed the first on Egypt, swarming into bedrooms, ovens and kneading bowls?

Frogs came next; Egypt's magicians conjured more of them, and when the frogs died they were piled in heaps until the land stank.

Which three-day plague does Exodus say could be felt?

Darkness so thick that people could not see one another or leave their places lay on Egypt for three days, while the Israelites had light where they lived.

What was the tenth and final plague on Egypt?

Death of the firstborn struck every Egyptian household from Pharaoh's to the prisoner's in the dungeon, and Pharaoh sent the Israelites away that same night.

How did the Israelites mark their homes to escape the final plague?

With a lamb's blood on the doorframe: it was daubed on the doorposts and lintel with a bunch of hyssop, and the lamb itself was roasted and eaten in haste that night.

Which Jewish festival commemorates the escape from Egypt described in Exodus?

Passover lasts seven days in Israel but eight in many diaspora communities, a habit from the days when distant communities could not be sure when the new month had been declared in Jerusalem.

Why is unleavened bread eaten to commemorate the Israelites' escape from Egypt?

The dough had no time to rise: driven out of Egypt in a hurry, the Israelites carried it off in kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks and baked flat cakes on the way.

What is the name of the book read at the Seder meal that retells the story of Exodus?

The Haggadah exists because Exodus 13:8 commands 'You shall tell your son in that day'; by custom the youngest person at the table asks the Four Questions that set the telling going.

How many Israelite men on foot does Exodus 12:37 say left Egypt?

About 600,000 men on foot, 'besides children', is the count in Exodus 12:37, and they did not leave alone: a 'mixed multitude' of others went up with them, along with great herds of livestock.

Whose bones does Exodus 13 say Moses carried out of Egypt to keep an old oath?

Joseph had made the Israelites swear to take his bones with them when God brought them out of Egypt; they were finally buried at Shechem.

In what form did God lead the Israelites through the wilderness by day?

God went before them by day in a pillar of cloud and by night in a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21), so the people could travel at any hour.

The Hebrew name of the sea the Israelites crossed, Yam Suph, is often translated as what?

Yam Suph is commonly rendered 'Sea of Reeds' (suph means reeds or rushes), which has led scholars to look at marshy lakes along the Suez isthmus rather than the Red Sea proper.

In Exodus 14, what natural force drives the sea back overnight so the Israelites can cross?

Exodus 14:21: when Moses stretched his hand over the sea, the Lord drove it back 'by a strong east wind all that night' and turned the seabed into dry ground.

Who led the Israelite women in song and dance with timbrels after the sea closed over the Egyptians?

Miriam, called 'the prophetess' in Exodus 15:20, took a timbrel and led the women in song and dance; in Numbers 12 she was struck with a skin disease for speaking against her brother.

What food did God provide each morning in the wilderness when the people complained of hunger?

Manna came with the morning dew and had to be gathered before the sun melted it; it stopped for good once Israel began eating the produce of its new land.

Exodus says the wilderness bread was white like coriander seed and tasted like what?

Exodus 16:31 describes the wilderness bread as 'like coriander seed, white', with a taste 'like wafers made with honey'; a double portion fell on the sixth day for the Sabbath.

The Hebrew name of the wilderness bread is traditionally explained as a question meaning what?

'What is it?' is what the Israelites asked one another on first seeing the flakes on the ground, 'for they did not know what it was'; tradition traces the bread's name to that question.

For how many years did the Israelites eat the wilderness bread, according to Exodus?

Exodus 16:35 says the Israelites ate the wilderness bread for 40 years, until they came to an inhabited land; a jar of it was kept before the Testimony as a memorial.

What accompanied God's descent on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19?

Thunder, lightning, smoke and a trumpet blast that grew ever louder made the whole camp tremble, and the people begged Moses to speak to them in God's place.

Exodus 31 says the first stone tablets of the Ten Commandments were written with what?

The finger of God wrote the first tablets; Moses smashed them on seeing the golden calf and had to carve the replacement pair of stones himself.

Besides Exodus 20, in which other book does the Ten Commandments text appear in full?

Deuteronomy 5 repeats the commandments but gives the Sabbath a different reason: not God's rest after creation, as in Exodus 20, but Israel's own slavery in Egypt.

The name Decalogue, used for the Ten Commandments, comes from the Greek for ten what?

Words: the Hebrew of Exodus 34:28 calls them 'the ten words', not commandments, and Greek translators rendered that as dekalogos, which became 'Decalogue'.

Who fashioned the golden calf while Moses was away on Mount Sinai?

Aaron collected the people's gold earrings and cast the calf (Exodus 32:2-4); confronted by Moses, he claimed he threw the gold in the fire 'and out came this calf'.

After grinding the golden calf to powder, what did Moses make the Israelites do with it?

Drink it in water was the order: Moses scattered the powder on water and made the people swallow it, and afterwards the Levites killed about three thousand of the idolaters.

Which Jewish symbol, now on Israel's national emblem, is first described in Exodus 25?

The menorah was to be hammered from a single talent of pure gold; the one on Israel's emblem is modelled on the Arch of Titus in Rome, where Roman soldiers carry a menorah among the spoils of Jerusalem.

What does the Hebrew word for the portable sanctuary, mishkan, literally mean?

'Dwelling place' matches the command behind it: 'Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them' (Exodus 25:8), where 'dwell' comes from the same Hebrew root.

Which craftsman, namesake of a Jerusalem art academy, does Exodus name as chief builder of the sanctuary tent?

Bezalel is said to be filled 'with the Spirit of God' for every kind of craft, and Exodus 37 credits him with making the Ark of the Covenant itself.

The Ark of the Covenant was made from which wood, overlaid with gold?

Acacia grows wild in the Sinai desert, probably why Exodus specifies the same wood for the Tabernacle's planks and its altar as well as the Ark.

Which national church claims to hold the actual Ark of the Covenant at Axum?

Ethiopian Orthodox tradition says Menelik I, son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, brought the Ark from Jerusalem; at Axum only a single guardian monk may look on it.

What did Moses strike with his staff at Rephidim to bring water for the people?

A rock gave water at Rephidim; years later at Kadesh Moses struck another one twice instead of speaking to it as told, and was barred from entering the Promised Land for it.

Where does the Bible say Moses died, having seen but never entered the Promised Land?

The Torah's final chapter has Moses climb Mount Nebo, view the land from Pisgah's summit and die there at 120; it adds that no one knows his burial place.

In the battle with Amalek at Rephidim, Israel prevailed only while Moses did what?

Held up his hands: whenever Moses lowered them Amalek gained, so two companions sat him on a stone and propped his arms up until sunset.

Who played Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 epic The Ten Commandments?

Charlton Heston's newborn son Fraser appeared on screen as the infant Moses, and Heston himself also supplied the voice of God at the burning bush.

The 1956 Ten Commandments won its only Academy Award in which category?

Best Visual Effects, then called Special Effects, went to John P. Fulton, who parted the Red Sea by releasing 360,000 gallons of water and running the film in reverse.

Which song from The Prince of Egypt won the Academy Award for Best Original Song?

'When You Believe' switches to Hebrew for its bridge, where a children's chorus sings lines adapted from the Song of the Sea in Exodus 15.

Ridley Scott's 2014 film Exodus: Gods and Kings starred which actor as Moses?

Christian Bale's film was banned in Egypt, where censors objected to what they called historical inaccuracies, such as showing Jews building the pyramids; Scott dedicated it to his late brother Tony.

Otto Preminger's 1960 film Exodus, about the founding of Israel, was adapted from a novel by whom?

Leon Uris's 1958 novel was adapted by blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, and Preminger's open hiring of him is credited, along with Spartacus, with ending the Hollywood blacklist.

Whose 1977 album Exodus did Time magazine name the best album of the 20th century?

Bob Marley and the Wailers recorded Exodus in London after gunmen wounded Marley at his home in Jamaica in December 1976; Time named it album of the century in 1999.

Which Levite woman, Moses' mother, hid him in a basket of bulrushes at the edge of the Nile?

Jochebed is unnamed in the story itself, where Exodus 2 calls her only 'a Levite woman'; her name first appears in a genealogy at Exodus 6:20, which adds that she was her husband's aunt.

In Exodus 4, what does Moses' wife do to halt a deadly divine attack on the way to Egypt?

She circumcises their son with a flint, touches his feet with the foreskin and declares 'you are a bridegroom of blood to me'; only then is he let alone.

In which season did the escape from Egypt take place, in the month Exodus calls Aviv?

Spring: Aviv is the month of ripening barley, which Exodus 12 makes the first of the year, and the Hebrew calendar adds a leap month every few years so it never drifts out of that season.

What does Moses start to do after coming down Sinai with the new tablets, changed by God's presence?

Moses began to wear a veil in public because his shining face frightened the people; the Latin Vulgate rendered 'shone' as 'horned', which is why Michelangelo's Moses has horns.

The story of baby Moses saved from the Nile is thought to echo an earlier legend about which ruler?

Sargon of Akkad's birth legend has his mother set him adrift on the Euphrates in a basket of rushes sealed with bitumen, to be found and raised by a water-drawer named Akki.

What does the Israelites' reply at Sinai, 'na'aseh v'nishma', literally mean?

'We will do and we will hear' puts doing first, and the Talmud praises Israel for exactly that order: a pledge to act on God's commands before hearing them out.

At Marah, three days after crossing the sea, what was wrong with the water the Israelites found?

It was bitter, which Exodus gives as the reason the place was called Marah; Moses threw in a piece of wood that God showed him, and the water turned sweet.

Archaeologists Finkelstein and Silberman argue the early Israelites did not arrive from Egypt but emerged within which land?

Canaan: in The Bible Unearthed (2001) they argue the Israelites were local Canaanites who grew into a distinct people, noting that surveys of Sinai found no trace of a mass migration.

According to Exodus 2, why was the infant Moses given his name?

Drawn out of the water is the reason Exodus gives, linking the name to a Hebrew verb for 'draw out'; many scholars instead trace it to an Egyptian word for 'child', as in Thutmose.

After the infant Moses was found in the Nile, which woman was paid wages to nurse him?

His own mother got the job: the baby's sister, watching from a distance, offered to fetch a Hebrew nurse and brought her straight back.

Whose bones did Moses carry out of Egypt, keeping an oath the Israelites swore generations earlier?

Joseph had made the Israelites swear that when God rescued them they would take his bones along, a promise first recorded at the end of Genesis.

After Moses first asked Pharaoh to let Israel go, the brickmaking slaves were denied which material?

Straw had to be gathered by the slaves themselves while the brick quota stayed the same, and Israelite foremen were beaten when output fell.

What was Moses told to take off at the burning bush because he stood on holy ground?

His sandals came off at God's command, and Moses then hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

Which birds covered the Israelite camp one evening in the wilderness, giving the people meat to eat?

Quail came at twilight, and by morning a fine frost-like food lay on the ground: together they answered the people's grumbling about hunger.

A Latin translation of Exodus 34 led Michelangelo to carve his marble statue of Moses with what?

Horns crown the statue because the Vulgate called Moses' face horned, where most Bibles say that his skin shone after speaking with God.

During the battle with the Amalekites, Israel prevailed only while Moses did what on a hilltop?

Moses kept his hands raised with help: two companions sat him on a stone and held his arms steady until sunset.

Why did Moses order the Israelites to stop bringing gifts for building the wilderness sanctuary?

They had given too much: the craftsmen reported more than enough material, so word went round the camp that nobody should make anything else.

Trapped between Pharaoh's army and the sea, the Israelites asked Moses whether Egypt had no what?

Graves were the sarcastic complaint: the people said serving the Egyptians would have been better than dying in the wilderness.

Shiphrah and Puah defied Pharaoh's order to kill Hebrew baby boys while working as what?

Midwives Shiphrah and Puah told Pharaoh that Hebrew women gave birth before they could arrive, and God rewarded the pair with families of their own.

What was engraved on the twelve gemstones set in the high priest's breastpiece in Exodus 28?

Names of the tribes, one per stone in four rows of three, so the high priest bore all Israel into the sanctuary as a memorial before God.

According to Exodus 2, the name Moses was chosen because the baby had been what?

Drawn out of water is how Exodus explains the name: the Hebrew Moshe echoes a verb meaning to draw out, and it was given once the child had grown.

Where in Midian did the fugitive Moses defend seven sisters from shepherds and meet his future wife?

At a well, Moses drove off the shepherds and watered the sisters' flock himself, so their father, the priest of Midian, invited him home to eat.

As a sign for doubters in Exodus 4, what happened to Moses' hand when he drew it from his cloak?

It turned leprous, white as snow, then healed the moment he tucked it back inside his cloak and drew it out again.

When Pharaoh's magicians matched the first sign shown at his court, what happened to their rods?

They were swallowed by the rod that had been thrown down first, even though the court sorcerers had matched the wonder with their secret arts.

Which plague, raised from the dust of Egypt, was the first that Pharaoh's magicians failed to copy?

Lice, or gnats in many modern translations, defeated the magicians, who had matched the earlier wonders and then told Pharaoh a god was at work.

Which region of Egypt, home to the Israelites, was spared the plagues of flies and hail?

Goshen, usually placed in the eastern Nile Delta, was where Jacob's family had settled generations earlier when famine drove them to Egypt.

The fifth plague in Exodus killed which possessions of the Egyptians while sparing those of Israel?

Livestock died across Egypt, from horses and donkeys to camels, and Pharaoh sent men to confirm that not one Israelite animal was lost.

During the plagues, what keeps happening to Pharaoh's heart so that he will not free Israel?

It is hardened, sometimes by Pharaoh himself and sometimes by God, a pattern that has kept readers arguing about free will ever since.

On the night of the tenth plague in Exodus, roasted meat and unleavened bread were eaten with what?

Bitter herbs went with the meat, which had to be roasted whole over fire, never boiled, and anything left by morning was to be burned.

Which young aide of Moses commanded the fighters who defeated the Amalekites in Exodus 17?

Joshua makes his first appearance in the Bible here, already a commander, and God ordered the victory written down and read aloud to him.

What did Moses throw into the undrinkable water at Marah to turn it sweet?

A piece of wood did it, a tree in older translations, which God pointed out after the thirsty people complained against Moses.

Which oasis, the Israelites' camp after Marah, had twelve springs and seventy palm trees?

Elim offered a rest beside its springs before the people moved on into the Wilderness of Sin, where the grumbling about food began.

At Sinai, God reminds Israel of being carried out of Egypt on the wings of which birds?

Eagles supply the image: God says he bore the people on their wings and brought them to himself, then offers them a covenant.

At Sinai, God offers to make Israel a holy nation and a kingdom of what?

Priests is the word, and the offer came with a condition: Israel had to obey God's voice and keep the covenant.

Before the Ten Commandments were given, the Israelites were warned that doing what would mean death?

Touching the mountain, even its edge, was forbidden to people and animals alike, and limits were set around the base to hold everyone back.

Which of the Ten Commandments comes with a promise of long life in the land?

Honor your father and mother carries the reward that your days may be long, which the letter to the Ephesians later singles out as a commandment with a promise.

Exodus 20 ties the commandment to rest on the Sabbath to which earlier event?

The creation of the world is the reason given: God made heaven, earth and sea in six days and then rested, so the day of rest was blessed and made holy.

Under the laws of Exodus 21, a Hebrew servant had to be set free in which year of service?

The seventh year brought freedom without payment after six years of work, mirroring the weekly pattern of labor and rest.

A servant in Exodus 21 who chose to stay with his master for life had what pierced with an awl?

His ear was pierced against the doorpost, a public mark that the servant had declared love for his master and family and given up going free.

By what Hebrew name is the seven-lamp golden lampstand described in Exodus 25 best known?

Menorah is the name, and Exodus describes it as hammered from a single piece of pure gold, with cups shaped like almond blossoms.

Which winged figures of hammered gold faced each other on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant?

Cherubim spread their wings over the lid, known as the mercy seat, and God promised to speak with Moses from the space between the two.

Which curtained inner chamber of the wilderness sanctuary held the Ark of the Covenant?

The Holy of Holies was entered by the high priest alone, and only once a year, on Yom Kippur.

Which items of gold jewelry did the Israelites hand over to be melted into the golden calf?

Earrings were pulled from the ears of wives, sons and daughters alike, and the finished idol was hailed as the god that brought Israel out of Egypt.

In Exodus 34, God passes before Moses and declares himself merciful, gracious and slow to what?

Anger is what God is slow to, a self-description that later books such as Jonah, Joel and the Psalms quote almost word for word.

Exodus 33 says God spoke with Moses face to face, the way a person speaks with whom?

A friend is the comparison, made at a tent pitched far outside the camp where anyone seeking God could go.

Which pair of sacred objects for seeking God's decisions was kept in the high priest's breastpiece?

Urim and Thummim sat over the high priest's heart whenever he went in before God, and after the exile unproven priests had to wait for a priest who could consult them.

The bronze washbasin of the wilderness sanctuary was cast from which objects given by serving women?

Mirrors handed over by the women who served at the entrance to the tent became the basin where the sanctuary's ministers washed their hands and feet.

What did Moses toss into the air before Pharaoh to bring on the plague of boils?

Furnace ashes became fine dust over Egypt, and the sores were so bad that even the magicians could not stand before Moses.

Which insects did God promise to send ahead of Israel to drive the Canaanites out of the land?

Hornets would clear the way little by little rather than in a single year, so the land would not turn wild before Israel could fill it.

By what Greek-derived name are Genesis, Exodus and the three books after them known together?

The Pentateuch is also called the Five Books of Moses or, in Jewish tradition, the Torah, and synagogues read through it in weekly portions each year.

In Exodus 27, which oil are the Israelites told to bring so the sanctuary lamp never goes out?

Olive oil, pure and beaten, fed the lamp that was tended from evening until morning just outside the inner curtain.

The English title Exodus comes from a Greek word with which meaning?

Going out, or departure, is the sense of the Greek exodos, the title the book carried in the ancient Greek translation known as the Septuagint.

Which man, married to his own aunt, is named in the Exodus 6 genealogy as the father of Moses?

Amram lived 137 years by the Exodus 6 genealogy, and his two famous sons were 83 and 80 when they first spoke to Pharaoh.

God tells Moses in Exodus 6 that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew him by which older title?

God Almighty, El Shaddai in Hebrew, is the title given to the patriarchs here, set against the personal name being disclosed to Moses.

Moses gave which son, born in Midian, a name recalling life as a foreigner in a foreign land?

Gershom sounds like the Hebrew for an alien there, and a second son, Eliezer, was named for God's help against Pharaoh's sword.

Which two nephews of Moses climbed Sinai with him and seventy elders and saw the God of Israel?

Nadab and Abihu ate and drank in God's presence that day, yet Leviticus records that both later died for offering unauthorized fire.

Which craftsman from the tribe of Dan was named as assistant builder of the wilderness sanctuary?

Oholiab was an engraver, skilled workman and embroiderer in blue, purple and scarlet, and Exodus adds that he was gifted to teach others.

Which pharaoh's victory stele, found at Thebes, bears the earliest known Egyptian mention of Israel?

Merneptah's inscription, set up around 1208 BCE, counts Israel among the peoples he claims to have laid waste.

Which ancient monastery stands at the foot of the peak traditionally identified as Mount Sinai?

Saint Catherine's was built on the orders of the emperor Justinian around the spot where tradition says Moses saw the bush that burned.